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Wednesday, April 20, 2011
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Calif. politician apologizes for racist e-mail Associated Press IRVINE, Calif. — A Southern California GOP official who sent out an e-mail picturing President Barack Obama’s face on the body of a baby chimpanzee issued an apology late Monday after a weekend of criticism that ended with a strongly worded public rebuke from the local Republican Party chairman, who also called for an ethics investigation into the incident. Marilyn Davenport, a 74-year-old Fullerton resident and elected member of the Orange County Republican Central Committee, sent an email Monday afternoon asking for forgiveness for her “unwise behavior,” just before the GOP committee met for its monthly summit at a hotel in Irvine, where the fallout from the incident was the hot topic. The email sent on Friday by Davenport to a small group of GOP committee members shows an image posed like a family portrait, of chimpanzee parents and child, with Obama’s face superimposed on the young chimp. Text beneath the picture reads, “Now you know why no birth certificate.” Some voters have maintained since the last presidential election that Obama is ineligible to hold the nation’s highest elected office because, they argue, he was actually born in Kenya, his father’s homeland. Obama’s mother was an American citizen. Hawaii officials have repeatedly confirmed Obama’s citizenship, and his Hawaiian birth certificate has been made public. Courts have rebuffed lawsuits challenging Obama’s eligibility. “To my fellow Americans and to everyone else who has seen this email I forwarded and was offended by my action, I humbly apologize and ask for your forgiveness of my
unwise behavior. I say unwise because at the time I received and forwarded the email, I didn’t stop to think about the historic implications and other examples of how this could be offensive,” Davenport’s apology read. “I am an imperfect Christian lady who tries her best to live a Christ-like honoring life. I would never do anything to intentionally harm or berate others regardless of ethnicity. Everyone who knows me knows that to be true.” Davenport, who was not present at the meeting, represents the 72nd Assembly
“
this committee. I do not know what was in the heart of Marilyn Davenport when she sent that email, only she does. I want to accept and do accept that Marilyn is not a racist,” Baugh said. “The email is without question extremely racist. Depicting African-Americans as monkey is a longtime, well-known and particularly offensive slur because it denies them their basic humanity.” The body’s ethics committee would investigate the incident, interview Davenport and make a report back to the executive commit-
To my fellow Americans and to everyone
else who has seen this email I forwarded and was offended by my action, I humbly apologize and
”
ask for your forgiveness of my unwise behavior.
– Marylin Davenport, Orange County Republican Central Committee, on offensive email
District in Orange County on the committee, which is made up of volunteer officials elected for two-year terms. The group is tasked with fundraising, campaigning and debating policy for the Republican Party. The county’s GOP chairman, Scott Baugh, told about 75 GOP members that despite Davenport’s “sincere apology,” he still condemned her actions and believed she should resign because her presence on the committee would remain controversial and provide a distraction. “The eyes of the nation are focused on us tonight because of the actions of a member of
tee within a week, Baugh said. The reputation of the Republican Party — the party of Abraham Lincoln that was founded in the midst of slavery and discrimination — was on the line, he said, and he asked party members to put themselves in the place of a black American opening the email. “I hope for a fleeting moment you can capture the taste of what it feels like to be at the bigoted end of racism. Just reflect on that because that’s what many of them saw, that’s what many of them felt and that’s how many of them reacted,” he said. A phone message left for Davenport
Monday evening was not immediately returned. Tim Whitacre, a longtime conservative activist in Orange County and representative of the county’s 69th Assembly District, spoke in support of Davenport and said he had visited her on Monday afternoon. He said the “petite grandmother originally from Kansas” who taught Bible study classes and had a heart condition was terrified by the outcry and had taken her phone off the hook after receiving angry calls. He asked committee members to forgive her and accept her apology — but said she didn’t intend to resign. Davenport is next up for election in 2012 and can only be removed by a recall before then, committee members said. “Who among us has done something, said something or sent something we didn’t regret later?” Whitacre said. “Let those among us who are without sin cast the first stone. This lady is sincere, I know her heart. This is her apology and I believe her, we need to believe her. She’s hunkered down at home, scared, afraid for her safety.” Earlier Monday, the president of the California NAACP decried the email as racist and dismissed Davenport’s claims that it was intended as a harmless joke. The White House didn’t immediately reply to an email seeking comment. This is the second time in recent years that an Orange County political official has been in the news for Obama-themed emails. In early 2009, Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose forwarded an email to a group of people from his personal account depicting a picture of the White House with a watermelon patch as its garden. Grose later resigned amid the backlash.
Texas ranchland blazed by wildfire Associated Press DALLAS — A Texas wildfire burning about 70 miles from the Dallas-Fort Worth area is more than twice as big as previous estimates, and firefighters will face difficult conditions Tuesday battling the blaze, officials said. The fire at Possum Kingdom Lake about 70 miles west of Fort Worth has grown to nearly 150,000 acres from estimates a day earlier of about 63,000 acres, according to the Texas Forest Service. The Possum Kingdom fire is the fifth of at least 100,000 acres around Texas reported in the past two weeks. Most of the state is in extreme drought, and wildfires in the past week alone have burned more than 1,000 square miles of parched Texas ranchland — an area that combined would be the size of Rhode Island. The weather is expected to complicate matters in North Texas on Tuesday, with temperatures forecast in the mid-90s and wind gusts of up to 35 mph. There is a chance of evening thunderstorms. “Gusty winds, it’s going to make any fire suppression efforts problematic,” Webb said Tuesday. “The public just needs to be mindful that any use of outdoor fire should not be considered.” More than 30 homes have been confirmed destroyed in the Possum Kingdom area, and the forest service says that number will grow. Trooper Gary Rozzell of the Texas Department of Public Safety said heat from the flames of fires near Possum Kingdom on the Brazos River grew so intense Monday that cinders were sent high into the atmosphere. There, they became icy and fell to the ground in a process called “icecapping,” he said. “They tell me it’s like a roof falling in,” he said. The fires drove residents from their homes along the shore of the North Texas lake, with at least 18 homes and two churches burned. The flames reached a storage building containing fireworks on the reservoir’s western shore, lighting up the night but causing no injuries, Palo Pinto County Judge David Nicklas said.
In West Texas, rugged, hilly terrain north of San Angelo was complicating efforts to bring the Wildcat Fire in Coke County under control. However, firefighters gained ground on it Monday after using “burnouts” on Sunday to clear out fuel needed by the advancing flames, according to Texas Forest Service spokesman Oscar Mestas. He said some scattered rural areas were evacuated as a precaution, but no homes were reported destroyed by the 104,000-acre fire. Two people who apparently wanted to see the fires from the air died when their single-engine biplane crashed near San Angelo, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said Monday. Witnesses told investigators the two-seater took off from Mathis Field/San Angelo Municipal Airport on Sunday and that the two people on board, whose identities had not been released, indicated they wanted to go on a sightseeing trip over the wildfire, Lunsford said. The wreckage was found Monday east of San Angelo. In Austin, some residents of a neighborhood in the southwestern corner of the capital city returned Monday to find charred ruins of their homes after a wildfire a day earlier. The blaze destroyed 10 homes in the affected area and significantly damaged 10 others, and those numbers are likely to rise as fire officials continue searching the area, said Austin Fire Department spokesman Palmer Buck. David and Kris Griffin returned home from out-of-town weekend trips on Monday to find that their house was one of at least 20 in their Austin neighborhood destroyed or nearly destroyed by a weekend wildfire. Nearly all of their possessions went up in flames, and George, their cat of 11 years, was missing. Making their loss even tougher to grasp, the homes on both sides of theirs survived relatively unscathed. “All the other houses got saved except ours ... we’re just kind of speechless right now,” said Kris Griffin. She said finding the cat was their priority, Tia Patron • The Daily Beacon because their possessions were Jeannie Lutz, junior in graphic design, examines the merchandise at the annual UT Pottery Sale on replaceable. Thursday, April 14. The sale raised money for the UT Potters, the university’s ceramic arts club.